Valpo Baseball is off to a solid start, even though we got killed against a ranked Alabama team in all 3 games. We just swept a DH from The Citadel on Friday, to move to 6-7. If we can finish the non-conference/yearly away game marathon close to .500, that is always a huge win for a cold weather program. We've played some really solid teams at this point, with a few solid teams to go, which will help to prepare us for a tough MVC.
We are now 7-8, heading into a tough series against Campbell, which is currently ranked #21. Good test heading into some conference games!
Tough game one loss to #21 Campbell. We led for most of the game, again went up 9-5 in the last few innings, only for Campbell to go into the bottom of the 9th tied at 9. We get the first 2 outs and then give up a walk-off HR to a guy that already has 9 HRs this season.
Home Opener today against Ball State...
Gonna warm up to around 50, with 20-mph winds... Welcome to the warm weather sports.
They are 11-9 including wins over Michigan State and Illinois.
They come in after losing three MAC games to Bowling Green at home over the weekend... including a 34-8 game on Saturday.
In that game, they gave up 8 runs in the 6th inning...and this is hard to do... without giving up any extra-base hits.
They gave up 14 runs in the 8th inning...and this is harder to do... they gave up those 14 runs without any extra-base hits! it was all singles, walks, hit-batters and errors.
Solid win against Ball State, 9-6! I have a feeling that we will be competitive in the MVC this season!
Nice win today against Ball State. Down, 6-1, Valpo came back to beat them 9-6 on two Kyle Schmack dingers. The Valley will be brutally tough again this year. ISU beat on Indiana today15 to something.
@vu72 Indiana must be down this year...Purdue Ft./Wayne whipped them, a week or so ago.
And that my friends is a complete game victory over Bradley 9-2. Really strong 8th inning for the Beacons.
We almost beat #7 Vanderbilt last week, losing 3-2. We've been in the vast majority of our losses, and are playing some solid teams. We are 9-16 (1-4) now, but I predict a top 3 or 4 finish.
I umpired a few games last year at Bauer for Perfect Game. The perks of being an IHSAA official I guess. I wish the field was more like what IUK does with Municipal Stadium. Got the city to donate funds to build the thing if the college agreed to have Kokomo HS as tenants of the stadium. Wish we would have done that when VHS was redoing their athletic complex and gotten a proper parking lot and grandstand built
We almost beat #7 Vanderbilt last week, losing 3-2. We've been in the vast majority of our losses, and are playing some solid teams. We are 9-16 (1-4) now, but I predict a top 3 or 4 finish.
When I was playing for VU (20 years ago now), Coach Twenge would often talk about stadium renovations and proposals. This even goes back to when I visited during HS in 1998, and talking up a partnership with the City of Valparaiso, but mainly the potential of bringing a minor league team to Valpo, in order to share stadium upgrade expenses.
@valpotx I work for the Parks Dept and their origional plan for the sports complex on 49 was to build a total of 8 fields. 3 rookie ball fields. 3 Cal Ripken Majors Fields. and 2 real fields. One field was a generic turf field, but the "Crown Jewel" was supposed to be a big stadium project. Apparently they wanted to lure the cats out of Gary because the MLB keeps telling them if they want to become an official minor league affiliate "Probably a Low A team" they either would have to make Gary safer or leave. Project is currently shelved due to lack of donor funds.
yes, sounds like a similar plan to what we were told, except different location! It was always going to be the potential of Gary moving to Valpo for MiLB potential, versus independent leagues.
On a positive note, we obliterate Bradley 13-2 to take the series, and move to 10-16 (2-4). Our RPI is right around 100, with a SoS around 80, which is top 3 for the MVC.
A bit of a struggle in the last 2 weeks to get to 13-28 (5-13), but a 20-0 win against UIC. @thevictorybell, your TVB article mentions that the 8 homeruns is the largest in recorded history for a single game. How far back does that go? I think that it is worth looking into our Chicago State series in the 2000-2001 season, as the wind was blowing out at their field, and we hit a ton of HRs in that series. I believe that Brian Wolotka alone had 7 HRs in 18-20 ABs that weekend.
